Report that examines experiences of five agencies that demonstrated evaluation capacity (e.g. a commitment to self-examination, data quality, analytic expertise, and collaborative partnerships) in their performance reports.
Report that examines experiences of five agencies that demonstrated evaluation capacity (e.g. a commitment to self-examination, data quality, analytic expertise, and collaborative partnerships) in their performance reports.
Following major welfare reform in 1996, the number of families receiving cash assistance was cut in half to 2 million. While many former recipients now rely more on their earnings, they often work at low-wage jobs with limited benefits & advancement opportunities. To better understand how to help these individuals & their families attain economic self-sufficiency, this is a report on: (1) strategies designed to increase income for TANF recipients through employment; (2) the key factors related to implementing & operating such strategies; & (3) actions the Dept. of Health & Human Services has taken to facilitate the use of these strategies. Experts were consulted to gather info. about promising strategies; 26 programs were visited. Charts & tables.
The ETA must invest in sound research that identifies the most effective and efficient ways to train and employ workers for 21st cent. jobs. ETA has been criticized for not focusing sufficient attention on its research program, conducting policy-relevant research, and disseminating key research findings in a timely way. This report examined the structure and processes of ETA's research and evaluation center. It addressed the following questions: (1) How does ETA's org. structure provide for research independence? (2) What steps has ETA taken to promote transparency and accountability in its research program? (3) How does ETA ensure that its research is relevant to workforce development policy and practice? Illus. A print on demand report.
This Handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system.
Knowledge grows as ideas are tested against each other. Agreement is not resolved simply by naming concepts but in the dialectical process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. There are many echoes of these debates in The Evidence Book. The contributors make claims for both practitioner wisdom and the voice of experience. Against this is posed the authority of experimental science and the randomized controlled trial. The contributors are concerned, in their own ways, with collecting, ranking, and analyzing evidence and using this to deliver evaluations. As an expert group, they are aware that the concept of evidence has been increasingly important in the last decade. As with other concepts, it too often escapes precise definition. Despite this, the growing importance of evidence has been advocated with enthusiasm by supporters who see it as a way of increasing the effectiveness and quality of decisions and of professional life. The willingness to engage in evidence-based policy and the means to do so is heavily constrained by economic, political, and cultural climates. This book is a marvelously comprehensive and utterly unique treatise on evidence-based policy. It is a wide-ranging contribution to the field of evaluation.